I'm trying to design a universal roleplaying system with the following design goals in mind.

Simplicity in execution at least

Intuitiveness – limited searching for info - slowdown limited as much as possible

Transferability – skills and attributes usable in any setting without replacements or additions. - Universal Special Effects System based on skills and attributes and dependent on using power rather than manifesting it.- No fundamental changes to the system to fit setting.

I'm not sure how to attain such lofty goals, so I'd like some suggestions.

Randomization MethodUniversal RPG uses the same randomization method to resolve everything in the game which roleplaying cannot resolve. Roll one ten-sided die (1d10) and add the character or creature’s appropriate Attribute score, Skill rank, and weapon Damage (if applicable) to the result. If you roll a 10, re-roll the die and add the new result to the total. You may continue to do so until you roll anything other than a 10.

Skills & Attributes

FITNESS Fitness measures physical strength and toughness.

Brawling You can make basic unarmed attacks (Punch and Kick).

ClimbingYou can climb trees, ropes, walls, and other difficult-to-climb objects or surfaces on a success. You make no progress on a failure. Your climbin g speed is 1/4 your walking speed.

Endurance You can increase the amount of time for which you can spend engaged in a prolonged activity such as running or swimming by one time period per Endurance rank.

JumpingYou can make vertical jumps, horizontal leaps, and combinations of both.

Lifting

Martial ArtsYou can make advanced unarmed attacks.

Melee Weapons You can make attacks with any melee weapon, such as a Sword, Club, or Staff.

Sleight of Hand You can conceal objects, such as weapons, on your person. You can also use Sleight of Hand to remove items from someone’s person without their knowledge.

SneakYou can move without being heard.

INTELLIGENCE Intelligence is the measure of a character’s mental aptitude, learning ability, and capacity for abstract thought.

Bureaucracy You know how to handle all aspects of dealing with and running businesses, companies, governments and organizations.

Craft You can build and repair things. You can use Craft to make explosives. Failure often results in detonation. You can use Craft to create false copies of documents, forms, licenses, identifications, signatures, personal seals, and so on.

Survival You can survive for a limited amount of time, but longer than anyone without this skill, in any environment.

TechnologyYou have practical knowledge of technology, how to use, program, or hack computers for example.PERCEPTION Perception measures a character’s wisdom and ability to notice things, such as changes in his or her surroundings, hidden opponents, concealed objects, and even the threat of danger.

AnalysisYou can analyze data, tactics, and forensics. Analysis can also be used as a , Spellcraft-like skill.

Search Your ability to actively search for and find what you are looking for is determined by the Search skill.

GUILEGuile measures a character’s physical attractiveness and ability to influence or manipulate others.

Animal Handling You are adept at the handling, and training animals.

BluffYou can deceive others.

Command You can lead others, such as military troops, construction teams, college students, etc.

Diplomacy You can make deals, negotiate contracts, settle disputes, etc.You can use Diplomacy to haggle over the price of almost any item. You can use Diplomacy to use the proper patterns of behavior in any given culture, organization, or society. You can use Diplomacy to deal with the darker aspects of society. This allows you to use illegal means to find unsavory people, acquire weapons, stolen items, or drugs, and get things done illegally.

Disguise You can disguise yourself as someone else, not only in appearance, but in mannerisms, voice, etc.

Gambling You may attempt to try your luck, so to speak, by engaging in activities that have a risk of great monetary loss, but a possibility of an even greater monetary gain.

Interrogation You can get information out of unwilling subjects through such techniques as “good cop bad cop,” temptation, coercion, making deals, the threat of physical violence, or anything else you can think of.

Intimidation You can make others do what you want them to do out of fear.

Perform You are particularly talented in the Performing Arts (Dancing, Oratory, Playing a musical instrument, Singing, Storytelling).

Willpower You can resist adverse mental conditions, such as temptation, the power of suggestive drugs, unconsciousness caused by mental weakness or extreme pain. Willpower is used to resist the use of Presence skills by others against you.

I have some comments, but I want to preface by asking why you want to do a generic game. What's wrong with GURPS that your game will solve? Or the Action! system? Or Risus? If we know what goals you have for your game in terms of making it superior to these, then we can see what you're going for.

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Universal RPG uses the same randomization method to resolve everything in the game which roleplaying cannot resolve.

I propose that this doesn't mean anything. You're going to have to be more specific. I can resolve abolsultely anything without any such mechanics via "roleplaying". This would be "freeform" roleplay, and it happens all the time. You need to say when the system gets used, and who decides.

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Universal Special Effects System based on skills and attributes and dependent on using power rather than manifesting it.

What does this mean? What's the difference between using and manifesting power (the latter sounds quite passive)?

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Roll one ten-sided die (1d10) and add the character or creature’s appropriate Attribute score, Skill rank, and weapon Damage (if applicable) to the result.

Intuitiveness – limited searching for info - slowdown limited as much as possible

Transferability – skills and attributes usable in any setting without replacements or additions. - Universal Special Effects System based on skills and attributes and dependent on using power rather than manifesting it. - No fundamental changes to the system to fit setting.

On one hand, the road of universal systems has been well-tread, but: I am *emphatically* for super-intuitive systems, and moreover I think you have something interesting about the Transferability.

I'm thinking that, if you can plop a character design from Midieval Norway to Cyberpunk SpaceTokyo, then what probably stays in common is not any set of skills, but some ratio of raw abilities and the way you can use them in skills... I'm going to toss some quick thoughts out into left field. I'm a amateur here, but it's a random idea for you to like or hate, and spin out some more thoughts.

To begin with, you have Fitness, Coordination, Intelligence, Perception, Guile. One good move could be to reduce these stats a bit further. My suggestion: how about three stats? Physical, Mental, Social. (My thinking is that Fitness, Coordination, Perception and Guile are certain presentations of the Physical; Coordination, Intelligence and Guile regard certain representations of the Mental; Intelligence, Coordination and Guile represents aspect of the Social, especially if you consider skills that are socially expected (such as arithmetic and driving in our own)).

Now on top of this, we could come up with WAYS that these raw elements show themselves: Technique, Knowledge, Instinct, Socially Common Skills, Economically Valuable skills, Crafts, Hobbies, Professional Skills. Alternately, we could up with gimmicks that reflect your character's relative position in society - Civilian, Underground, Criminal, Lawman, Ethical Elite, Economic Elite, etc. All of these elements should be common in *most* societies.

Basically, the idea is that you cross the raw ability AND the gimmicks you have for it's presentation, consider the role of the skill in society, and thus the task resolution is a test for if you *would* have a relevant skill in this kind of society. (Example: Jenn is Physically strong, and has Technique and Civilian gimmicks. She may have possessed firearms and sharpshooting skills had she been in Frontier America, but perhaps not in modern-day London.)

Roll one ten-sided die (1d10) and add the character or creature’s appropriate Attribute score, Skill rank, and weapon Damage (if applicable) to the result.

And compare to what? How do I interperet the results?

Oops, I forget to write that.

Here is the revised wrte up.

Task ResolutionRoll one ten-sided die (1d10) and add the character or creature’s appropriate Attribute score, Skill rank to the result. If you roll a 10, re-roll the die and add the new result to the total. You may continue to do so until you roll anything other than a 10. Compare the final result to the difficulty chosen by the referee. If the result equals or exceeds the target number determined by the difficulty, you succeed at the task. Otherwise, you fail.

To begin with, you have Fitness, Coordination, Intelligence, Perception, Guile. One good move could be to reduce these stats a bit further. My suggestion: how about three stats? Physical, Mental, Social. (My thinking is that Fitness, Coordination, Perception and Guile are certain presentations of the Physical; Coordination, Intelligence and Guile regard certain representations of the Mental; Intelligence, Coordination and Guile represents aspect of the Social, especially if you consider skills that are socially expected (such as arithmetic and driving in our own)).

Her Saber + Gun skills come from both being part of a Military/Security background; she also is of a Religious Elite, which here gives her access to these skills. She has good Coordination and Reflexes. She needs to pilot small craft because she is Mobile and Independent. She knows Mechanical Repair due to needing to be Independent and her Ingenuity. She knows languages because she is well traveled and Political, and she knows Stealth because her task requires Covert actions...

Now Jenn wants her persona to fit into a 1980s cop show, fighting crime on the mad streets of Miami. All of her stuff can still fit: Military (she's a cop), Religious Elite (she's used to be a Rabbinical scholar, and is still a friend of high-level Rabbis), Covert (she usually operates plain-clothes for sting ops), Coordination, Reflexes, Ingenuity, Political (she has to help balance racial/class tensions on the job), Independent, Mobile (she's a state trooper), Well-Travelled (from being a Rabbinical Scholar?).

Military x Coordination explain her firearms skill; Political and Well-Traveled suggests she knows local languages; Mobile x Coordination suggests she's pretty good at driving a car; Mobile x Independent could justify using a motorcycle; and so on.

So basically: the task system could be roll some dice and take the highest number. The abilties give you a base: 4+ is enough for easy stuff, 5+ is enough for average stuff, 6 is necessary for difficult things. You can add extra dice by justifying that having a relevant skill here is part of your character's integral nature. (It should generally take at least two justifications.)

So: Jenn jumps into her Ferrari to chase down some thugs. It's going to be hard to chase down their Ford Nova, but she's got 3d6 for physical stuff, and is Coordinated, has Reflexes, and is Mobile. Off of 6 dice, she succeeds easily, and catches up. She wants to lean over while driving, and take out their tires. This is going to be hard, and relies on her Coordination and Military background: With 5 dice, she fails this time around, and the shot just hits concrete...

The exact numbers of dice and such as important yet, as I did just pull them from thin air. Do you like this general idea? It's a bit wierd, but it might have the transferability you want.

First thing. What do you mean about Universal? Universal here has no meaning. Your RPG has to opperate for a basic purpose. I would guess that you already know the premise. Is it a set of basic rules for action roelplaying that can be added on to to fit different types of play? You already said that you wanted intuitive rules. What kinds of play do you want to see with your game?

I'm not trying to be pushy. I just want you to ask yourself these things if you already haven't. If you understand all of that you will have a MUCH easier time making your game.

I think he made it pretty clear what he means by universal. I know universal can refer to style of play, and a lot of other things. However, if you read into it, he makes a point of using the word "setting" in 2 out of his 5 goals. Both saying that the elements mentioned will not be altered based on setting. Also, thanks to games like GURPS, most people automatically assume univeral = any genre/setting.

...if you read into it, he makes a point of using the word "setting" in 2 out of his 5 goals. Both saying that the elements mentioned will not be altered based on setting. Also, thanks to games like GURPS, most people automatically assume univeral = any genre/setting.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, I disagree. I think there are three kinds of "universal", and people tend to confuse them.[list=1][*]A single game engine which is adaptable to any one setting, exemplified by GURPS but clearly what is intended by D20.[*]A unified game which blurs all settings into one world, in which characters may travel between the settings but are always in the same world. This gives rise to wizards in science fiction settings, ray guns being used against medieval elven armies, and other anomalies. Rifts is the poster child for this, although it has some limitations.[*]A campaign system which carries the same characters from setting to setting, genre to genre, adjusting the system automatically to balance various genre tropes so that characters remain whatever they are but settings are not thereby unbalanced. Multiverser is in this category. OAD&D had an effort in one of the appendices to make it do that, but it never found popularity.[/list:o]So I wouldn't assume people take "universal" the same way. I take GURPS to be Generic, but not universal, Multiverser to be universal, but not generic. It's not the same thing at all.

I'm glad you like. I think we're all still curious what you're looking for. Like:

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1. A single game engine which is adaptable to any one setting, exemplified by GURPS but clearly what is intended by D20.2. A unified game which blurs all settings into one world, in which characters may travel between the settings but are always in the same world. This gives rise to wizards in science fiction settings, ray guns being used against medieval elven armies, and other anomalies. Rifts is the poster child for this, although it has some limitations.3. A campaign system which carries the same characters from setting to setting, genre to genre, adjusting the system automatically to balance various genre tropes so that characters remain whatever they are but settings are not thereby unbalanced. Multiverser is in this category. OAD&D had an effort in one of the appendices to make it do that, but it never found popularity.

Which of these fits? I suppose the kind of transferability I'm hoping for seems to be more like #3. What other kinds of things are you looking for?

I would have to say that #3 is the type of universality (is that a real word?) that I want.

Hm, what else am I looking for?

A magic/psionics/superpower/gadget sysem that focuses more on how you use these abilites rather than creating the special effect that enables you to do it. ie, "I want to throw a fireball at the goul" as opposed to "I want to create a fireball and throw it at the goul."

I have more, but It will have to wait until tomorrow because I'm out of time. I hope that adequately adresses at least a couple issues.